“The tide was running fast when the Reformation began at Wittenberg, and it was to be expected that Luther’s influence would stem the flood of absolutism. For he was confronted everywhere by the compact alliance of the Church with the State; and great part of his country was governed by hostile potentates who were prelates of the court of Rome. He had, indeed, more to fear from temporal than from spiritual foes.”

—  John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

The History of Freedom in Christianity (1877)

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John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton112
British politician and historian 1834–1902

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